Gary Johnson is looking to draw on his past cup experiences, as Taunton Town visit Plainmoor in the Isuzu FA Trophy Fourth Round this Saturday.
“It’s a one-off game, and you don’t want to be the team that is classed as the higher division team and get beat, and yet that happens all the time,” said Johnson.
“I was five years at Cambridge, we did it for many years on the trot in cup competitions, and we knew that teams – and we were the underdogs in most of those cup wins – they end up sometimes not putting enough in, and seemed to be a bit embarrassed to be seen to be trying too hard. So, we have always got to be aware, and I am always aware, that could happen – that they are going to raise their game, and we mustn’t let our game drop.
“That is important, and the lads have got to respond to that. We didn’t do that early enough against Hampton & Richmond, but we came back and ended up winning the tie, and hopefully a lot of them would have learned from that as well.”
With Nico Lawrence becoming United’s third New Year addition, the Gaffer explained how transfer activity is a constantly moving process in football, before taking a moment to pay tribute to the support he has received in pursuit of strengthening his squad.
“We are always looking to strengthen, always.
“I mean we could have Harry Kane, but you have still got to look for somebody better if you can find that. So, therefore we are looking all the time and we will have a list of players, we will talk to representatives of some players, especially if they are coming out of contract.
“Things change in football, one minute a Club wants to move a player on, and the next they don’t, one minute a player wants to come to us, and the next he has had a couple of offers from other Clubs at a higher level, but we are always looking.”
“The big thing about that is that I know the strength of the Club’s finances, I know what we can and what we can’t do, and I can honestly say our board of Directors are very supportive in that, and I think that is important for everybody to know, because we work as a Club here, not just as different units, and I think that is really important.”